Cremiere, Massin, and Minoret-Levrault, extremely common persons, were “rated without appeal” by the doctor within two months of his arrival in Nemours, during which time they courted, less their uncle than his property.  Persons who are led by instinct have one great disadvantage against others with ideas.  They are quickly found out; the suggestions of instinct are too natural, too open to the eye not to be seen at a glance; whereas, the conceptions of the mind require an equal amount of intellect to discover them.  After buying the gratitude of his heirs, and thus, as it were, shutting their mouths, the wily doctor made a pretext of his occupations, his habits, and the care of the little Ursula to avoid receiving his relatives without exactly closing his doors to them.  He liked to dine alone; he went to bed late and he got up late; he had returned to his native place for the very purpose of finding rest in solitude.  These whims of an old man seemed to be natural, and his relatives contented themselves with paying him weekly visits on Sundays from one to four o’clock, to which, however, he tried to put a stop by saying:  “Don’t come and see me unless you want something.”

The doctor, while not refusing to be called in consultation over serious cases, especially if the patients were indigent, would not serve as a physician in the little hospital of Nemours, and declared that he no longer practiced his profession.

“I’ve killed enough people,” he said, laughing, to the Abbe Chaperon, who, knowing his benevolence, would often get him to attend the poor.

“He’s an original!” These words, said of Doctor Minoret, were the harmless revenge of various wounded vanities; for a doctor collects about him a society of persons who have many of the characteristics of a set of heirs.  Those of the bourgeoisie who thought themselves entitled to visit this distinguished physician kept up a ferment of jealousy against the few privileged friends whom he did admit to his intimacy, which had in the long run some unfortunate results.

CHAPTER III

The doctor’s friends

Curiously enough, though it explains the old proverb that “extremes meet,” the materialistic doctor and the cure of Nemours were soon friends.  The old man loved backgammon, a favorite game of the priesthood, and the Abbe Chaperon played it with about as much skill as he himself.  The game was the first tie between them.  Then Minoret was charitable, and the abbe was the Fenelon of the Gatinais.  Both had had a wide and varied education; the man of God was the only person in all Nemours who was fully capable of understanding the atheist.  To be able to argue, men must first understand each other.  What pleasure is there in saying sharp words to one who can’t feel them?  The doctor and the priest had far too much taste and had seen too much of good society not to practice its precepts; they